Hampton blames Liberal power policy for forestry job cuts

News Release
Ont. NDP

“The closure of another paper machine at the Weyerhaueser Dryden mill shows once again that the McGuinty Liberals’ hydro and forest policies are destroying jobs across Northern Ontario”, NDP leader Howard Hampton.
Weyerhaueser announced the closure of a paper machine in Dryden and the layoffs of 80 workers. Over the past two and a half years, 510 workers have been laid off at the Dryden operations.
“The McGuinty government is driving the price of electricity through the roof, driving the cost of wood fibre through the roof, and driving forest companies and forestry jobs out of Ontario. Northerners deserve better,” Hampton said.
Hampton said the McGuinty Liberals are out of touch. Earlier this week when the most recent wave of layoffs and job losses was raised in the legislature, Premier McGuinty’s Parliamentary Assistant, Tony Wong, suggested that: “...communities have suffered a loss of jobs, but what they should do is look for new ways to create jobs to develop their economy and not just come as crying babies to the province.”
Hampton also said that a McGuinty Liberal announcement of a new $500 million loan program aimed at Ontario’s hard-hit manufacturing sector is once again “too little, too late”.
Hampton said Ontario’s manufacturers don’t need more debt. They need the McGuinty Liberals to get their economic fundamentals right - like a plan for affordable, reliable electricity. Otherwise, Ontario will continue to see plant closings, paper mill closings and more manufacturing jobs destroyed.
“Earlier this year the Liberals said loan guarantees would help our pulp and paper mills. Since then, paper mills have closed in Thunder Bay, Ottawa, Cornwall, and Kenora with huge layoffs announced in Red Rock, Sault Ste. Marie and Dryden. Obviously, no one in the pulp and paper industry thinks that the McGuinty and Martin Liberal loan guarantees are the answer”, Hampton said.